(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from Oregon State University, The Ohio State University, and the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, have helped characterize a novel electrocatalyst developed by collaborators at Yale University and helped explain its improved efficiency for deriving methanol from carbon dioxide. The researchers’ dual-site catalyst is the result of combining two different catalytic sites at adjacent locations, separated by about 2 nanometers, on carbon nanotubes. The new design increases the methanol production rate, and less of the electricity used to catalyze the reaction is wasted. “The hybrid catalyst was found to exhibit unprecedented high catalytic efficiencies, nearly 1.5 times higher than observed before,” said Zhenxing Feng, one of the scientists involved in this study.

(Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Villanova University; Northwest Missouri State University; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, Germany; the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany; the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg, Germany; the Institute for Photonics and Nanotechnologies in Milano, Italy; and Politecnico di Milano in Italy have observed how electrons, excited by ultrafast light pulses, danced in unison around fullerene (C60) molecules. Researchers measured this dance with unprecedented precision, achieving the first measurement of its kind at the sub-nanometer scale. The synchronized dance of electrons, known as plasmonic resonance, can confine light for brief periods of time. While they’ve been studied extensively in systems from several centimeters across to those just 10 nanometers wide, this is the first time researchers were able to break the field’s “nanometer barrier.”

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers at North Carolina State University have demonstrated a new technique that uses light to tune the optical properties of quantum dots. The researchers placed green-emitting perovskite quantum dots in a solution containing either chlorine or iodine. The solution was then run through a microfluidic system that incorporated a light source. The microfluidic environment enabled precise reaction control by ensuring uniform light exposure across small solution volumes, approximately 10 microliters per reaction droplet. The light triggered reactions that made the green-emitting perovskite quantum dots move closer to the blue end of the spectrum when chlorine was present in the solvent and closer to the red end of the spectrum when iodine was present in the solvent.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Engineers from Purdue University and GRIMM Aerosol Technik Ainring GmbH & Co. in Germany have found that chemical products from air fresheners, wax melts, floor cleaners, and deodorants can rapidly fill the air with nanoparticles that are small enough to get deep into our lungs. These nanoparticles form when fragrances interact with ozone, which enters buildings through ventilation systems. “Our research shows that fragranced products are not just passive sources of pleasant scents—they actively alter indoor air chemistry, leading to the formation of nanoparticles at concentrations that could have significant health implications,” said Nusrat Jung, one of the engineers involved in this study.

(Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation)
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed ultra-thin materials, called metasurfaces, that can amplify and interact with light regardless of its polarization. The metasurfaces are made of tiny nanoantennas that can both amplify and control light in very precise ways and could replace conventional refractive surfaces in eyeglasses and smartphone lenses. The polarization-independent metasurfaces have what’s known as a high quality factor, which means they trap light over a narrow band of resonant frequencies for a long time, generating a strong response to external stimuli.